Once you get to the first draft, it feels like you have finished your book. Doesn't it? Doesn't it? You want to run through the streets. You want to tell everyone that you've written the book. You want them to congratulate you, but I am going to burst that bubble you've created for yourself. You have not written a book. That thing you've got right there, that messy mass of paper and words is not a book. I feel bad saying that, but I am telling the truth. You've got a ways to go before that thing...
Aug 31, 2020•12 min
Most of the time we view argumentation as a bad thing, but when I think of arguments, I do not think of two people yelling at each other. I think of a long string of statements that connect together logically. I think of clearly defined definitions. I think of debate. I think of scholars instead of two people saying the same things over and over again with only the intention to win. In this episode of How to Write Good, I am going to argue (did you see what I did there) that taking on a logical ...
Aug 28, 2020•16 min
I have been talking about how logic relates to writing. If you haven't checked out the last two episodes on this topic, I would suggest listening to those two before you listen to this one, because thinking about logic when you write involves the entire process rather than just one part (Or you can just listen to one part I guess. You do you. Don't let me tell you what to do). The first step of the logical process is defining things. It is determining what a thing actually is. By doing this, you...
Aug 27, 2020•7 min
In my last episode, I talked about how understanding logic is extremely important when developing your writing. I talked about how we need to learn more academic logic because it can help us understand the world, and because we are able to understand the world, we will be better able to take those ideas and put them into our writing. This week, we are going to be talking about the first step of logic. This step is called definitions. We need to learn to define what we are talking about before we...
Aug 26, 2020•10 min
Logic. I probably here this word a dozen times a week. Logic. Common sense. Make sense. That doesn't make sense. That is illogical. That is ridiculous. This person doesn't know how to think. I hear about logic, or I hear about information related to logic all the time. What is really depressing to me is that most people who talk about logic do not actually think logical. I do not say this to insult them. I do it to make a statement about the sad state of how we think all around the world. Most p...
Aug 25, 2020•11 min
We all want good things. We want to eat good food. We want to listen to good music. We want our chair not to fall apart under us. We want the plane we are flying across the country not to fall from that sky. These are all good. And for some of these, it is clear to see why they are good. When we write, we want to write in a way that is good. Another way to say that is we want our writing to be good. But what is good writing? That is hard to say. When I look at writing, I can tell if it is good o...
Aug 24, 2020•16 min
In my past episode, I talked about how I do not like false victories. Maybe this is just my own preference. Every writer has certain things they enjoy. Every writer has their own quirks and idiosyncrasies, and though I do not want to admit it, I am subjective (there, the truth is finally out). But I think that taking a look at any aspect of writing to see what is going on with it is important. I think false victories are something we should look at. Are they good? Should we include them in our s...
Aug 21, 2020•10 min
Metaphors are fun. They may be one of my favorite things in writing. Of course, they aren't the only thing in writing. Writing is a complex thing. Many different things go in to make writing happen, and good writing not only takes into account how the language works, but it also takes into account your audience, culture, the genre, and many other things. But metaphors are fun, and I think that metaphors have a special role within writing and art. I would go so far as to say that metaphors are no...
Aug 20, 2020•14 min
Everyone (I am just going to assume this is the case) wants to get in shape. Everyone wants to eat healthier. All of us want to be better. I know of know writer who does not want to be a better writer, and we all as writers know that the only way we are going to become better writers is if we practice writing. Some of us believe that we should be writing every day. Though I do not know if we need to be writing every single day, developing a habit of writing is something that is necessary. We nee...
Aug 19, 2020•17 min
I used to think that logic was at the center of our thinking. This does not seem to be the case when you look at people, because people often do things illogically. But as I looked at people and saw them respond to events, it seemed to be the case that though they did not move through the world with perfect logic, they moved through it in a way with some sort of reason. They did not just respond to the world. They try to make sense of their world as well. So, they had some soft of fuzzy and ofte...
Aug 18, 2020•11 min
I think almost every single author I have run into says the same thing about finishing their book: though they have the book in a completed state, they could go on working on that book until the end of time. I am sure I could do this as well. There is a little gremlin in my mind that tells me I need to make something better whether it is good or not. So, I could spend the rest of my life on one book, and I would not actually complete that book. I would die with that book incomplete, because if I...
Aug 17, 2020•7 min
If I were to ask the question, "What should you put in each chapter of your book?" you might look at me sideways. Finding out what to put in each of your chapters is easy to most writers. But this question is important. When you write a work of fiction, you start with nothing. Though you are constrained by a few things, such as the language you write in, the world is open to you. The story you can tell can go millions of different ways. Combinations are endless. As you develop your ideas for the...
Aug 14, 2020•10 min
I enjoy writing the first draft of my book. It is an opportunity to dive into something new. It is an opportunity to explore the thing that I have been daydreaming about in me head for the last few months (and in some cases, years). First drafts are fun to me. One of the reasons they are fun to me is because I write them so quickly. But editing. . . Editing can be a bit of a drag because I am trying to make all the mess of my first draft work. I am trying to get my book to that final polished st...
Aug 13, 2020•8 min
Story structure is important. Each story must follow the structure of a story. To understand what stories are, people have developed story structures that we can use to understand and develop stories. You have probably heard about the three act story. You have probably heard about the five act story. It is less likely that you have heard of the seven point story structure. On today's episode of How to Write Good, we are going to be talking about that final story structure, seven point story stru...
Aug 12, 2020•8 min
There are a lot of different ways you can go about planning a story. Some people are pantsers. Some people are plotters. If you are a pantser, I would encourage you to do some plotting. When we go about planning, we have several different ways to go about planning. People have set up several different structures on how stories work. One of my favorite is the five act story structure. Shakespeare also used this. My Book: https://amzn.to/31UcCPg My Newsletter: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webfor...
Aug 11, 2020•14 min
The protagonist of the story creates the core of a story. You look through that character’s eyes to write. You watch as that character acts in the world. The way that character moves through the world and how it ends up is what we are watching. It is that which makes up the story that pushes us to the edge of our seat. But a story is not just made up of the main character. It is made of places. It is made of events. And it is made of side characters. One of the most interesting parts of a story ...
Aug 10, 2020•10 min
We have talked about how to start the book. We have talked about the different parts of the book. Some people will point to one of these two aspects as the most important part of a story. I do not know if I would go so far. I am not a person who tends to point to one aspect of a story to say it is the most important. I think there is danger doing that for any writer. One of the areas I have not talked about yet is the ending of a book. If we can write the beginning and we can write the middle, w...
Aug 07, 2020•11 min
I love dialogue. It is one of my favorite things to write. I am not sure of the entire reason behind that. I think part of it is because all fiction writing seems to direct itself toward dialogue, meaning that it is usually some sort of dialogue that creates the climax of the story. Another reason I love dialogue is because it has never been something difficult for me. It has been something very natural, and I have found it to be the case that dialogue flows into my mind without the need to try ...
Aug 06, 2020•8 min
Every story has three parts, and these three parts have been known to exist for thousands of yours. These three parts are beginning, a middle, and an end. Aristotle said that these were the three parts of a story, and I think that these three parts are the most basic sections we can break a story into. This is not without good reason. Each of these parts is distinct from the others, but each must exist to create a full story. On today’s episode of How to Write Good, I am going to be talking abou...
Aug 05, 2020•11 min
Have you ever read a book that was written so well that made you cry? I mean one of those books that is written so well, you realize you're a slob who is never going to make it in life, so you buy yourself three gallons of ice-cream, four bags of chips, and fourteen pounds of SlimJims, and you slip into a bath of your own hot tears and lament that you were born with an inferior understanding of the English language? What I mean is that you run across one of those writers who takes away the need ...
Aug 04, 2020•12 min
I have been writing for almost two decades. When it comes to beginnings and endings, I rarely can come up with something that works on the first try. This is especially the case for beginnings. When you open a book, you want to make the reader feel obligated to read the rest of the book. Not as if you are threatening them though. You want them to like the beginning of the book so much that they have a need to read the rest. How do we begin then? How can we look at beginnings so that we bring abo...
Aug 03, 2020•8 min
What is your favorite part of writing? One of my favorite parts is planning the book. I also like the first draft, but one of the areas I do not like as much is editing. Editing can be the worst, because by the time you get to editing, you have already written the entire book. You feel something psychological that says you are done, but you have only just begun the process. I have heard from a lot of people that their least favorite part of writing is editing (which really sucks for them, becaus...
Jul 31, 2020•13 min
Mark Twain (AKA Samuel Clemens) famously wrote in a letter that he would have made the letter shorter, but he did not have the time. Mr. Twain understood that writing did not require every little detail of every little thing to be explained. He actually understood that good write was succinct. It does not waste the readers time. If it needs to take longer to explain something, it has a reason for doing so. Good writing always has a pay-off. In this episode, I talk about how to focus your writing...
Jul 30, 2020•12 min
When you write anything, you usually decide on how to write that thing based on how it feels in the world. What is the emotional connection? Does this thing I am writing contain movement? Do I need to describe it in a certain way because the way it expresses itself is temporal? Action is one of these things that looks a certain way in the world, so there seems to be one evident way to write action. You write action step by step through the sequence of events that make up the action. But what if ...
Jul 29, 2020•9 min
When I first started to write in school, I was taught that each sentence forms a complete thought. This is probably true. When linguists look at talking and writing, they probably say that a sentence is a thought. Even though this might be true, I think you need to shift your attitude about what forms a complete thought in relation to writing. Instead of saying that a sentence is a complete thought, shift your paradigm to understand your most basic unit of writing as a paragraph. That might soun...
Jul 28, 2020•8 min
Character motivation and character goals are not the same thing. If you haven't check out my episode on why that is the case, you should check it out. I think it is very important to know the differences between these two things because motivation can help make your writing and story very interesting. Because of this, I would like to dive into character motivation more. It can be a very complex thing within a story. It can be something that makes your story wholly unique, and though you may be a...
Jul 27, 2020•12 min
Tension is something within writing that I do not think exists on its face. I think writing requires an audience. A person needs to understand and connect to the story, and when the right person reads a piece of text, that person is able to understand the tension in the story. The writing does need to exist for the tension in the writing to exist (of course), but it is a requirement for tension to exist. Today, I am going to be talking about tension. What is tension? Why do we need tension? How ...
Jul 24, 2020•11 min
One of the things I learned about in school was the necessity of having transitions in my writing. If I did not have transitions, my writing would not flow. If my writing did not flow, people would not like my writing. If people did not like my writing, they would not like me. And if they decided they would not like me, they would flick cartons of old milk at my head. So, when I was younger, it was almost an imperative to make sure I used transitions because if I did not, the day would be both s...
Jul 23, 2020•7 min
Writing only consists of what is on the page, but it doesn't, but it does, but it doesn't. If you have ever thought about what writing is, you probably have realized that it is a very complex process. Speech is a complex process in and of itself, but writing goes beyond speech. It follows after speech. What I mean by that is it takes on the pattern of speech, but it is tweaking that pattern to fit into the new format of writing. When we approach writing, we often think that if we put things on t...
Jul 22, 2020•7 min
Something things in writing are boring. I find copy-editing boring. Formatting is not that fun either. Neither is sending out queries to agents. Some of you may find outlining a boring part of the book, and some of you may find outlining so boring you have labelled it as useless so you do not even do it (Because we all know that there can be no other reason for why you do not outline a book). When I think about outlining a book, I do not think most people have trouble with the process. You come ...
Jul 21, 2020•14 min
